1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an applicator to be mounted in a terminal crimping machine for crimping an electric wire on a terminal by caulking in a process of fabricating a wiring harness used for electric wiring for a vehicle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, the production of wiring harnesses used in electric wiring for a motor vehicle is likely to shift from a mass-production system to a small quantity and a variety of kinds of production systems. A wire end processing system has been required which can implement a series of processing inclusive of caulking and crimping of a large number of kinds of wires having several standards (wire diameter, single or multiple, twisted or non-twisted, covering color) and lengths on different terminals. Japanese Patent Preliminary Publication No. 6-38854 proposes a wire end processing system as shown in FIG. 6.
The electric wire end processing system includes an electric wire supply device P, an inverting device Q, a cutting device R, a transporting device S, a peeling device T, a terminal crimping unit U and an automatic control device V for controlling these devices.
Of these devices, the terminal crimping unit U serves to crimp a required terminal on the conductive end conductor of a wire. As shown in FIG. 7, the terminal crimping unit U includes a terminal crimping machine c mounted on a supporting stand b attached on a stand a.
The terminal crimping machine c includes an applicator d having a crimping die corresponding to a predetermined terminal and a terminal shifting mechanism. Chain-like terminals f wound around a terminal reel e, attached on the shaft of the stand a are supplied, one by one, to the crimping die of the applicator d through the terminal guide so as to be crimped on the end of the electric wire.
The chain-like terminals are so formed by pressing so that plural terminals are coupled to make a continuous band and held in a state where they are wound around the terminal reel e.
The wire end processing system requires the following steps (a) to (f) in replacement of the part number of terminals:
(a) removing a terminal f from the applicator d of the terminal crimping unit U; PA1 (b) taking out a redundant terminal f to the terminal reel e and removing it from the stand a; PA1 (c) removing the applicator from the terminal crimping machine; PA1 (d) mounting an applicator d' to be newly used in the terminal crimping machine c; PA1 (e) attaching a terminal reel c' to be newly used to the stand a; and PA1 a terminal crimping member including a crimping anvil and a crimping jig; PA1 a terminal supply member having a terminal shifting mechanism; PA1 a terminal reel member on which or crimped terminals; and PA1 a reel stand member for supporting said terminal reel, PA1 all of said members being integrally arranged on a base plate.
(f) setting a new terminal f' guided from the terminal reel e' in the applicator d'.
The above process, which includes several troublesome replacement workings, has the disadvantage of taking a long time to prepare the terminal crimping unit U. In order to shorten the time required for the replacement working, a large number of terminal crimping units U corresponding to a great variety of kinds of wires and terminals which can be prepared previously. However, this leads to cost increase and requires a vast accommodating space, which are obstacles to actual use.